“I first started working with Colin as a newly appointed Public Sector Division Manager. I had been promoted from a technical role to supervising over fifteen direct reports and felt challenged with the ‘How’ of leading people and understanding the role of a manager. Our Department retained Colin as part of a Departmental Leadership Developmental Program. Over the course of two years, I met with Colin on a monthly basis.
“Through exercises in self-exploration and developing awareness of my own emotional intelligence, I gained the ability to define my authentic management and interpersonal communication style. I eventually gained sufficient confidence in my abilities to define and pursue my ideal role, working environment, and corporate culture; resulting in me being happier in my work, more productive in my deliverables, and feeling fulfilled with the contribution that I was bringing to my workplace. I continue to make use of the skills, tools, and practices that I learned during my time with Colin to develop my staff, solve problems, and continuously assess my strengths and goals.”
Michele Samuels
Senior Asset Management Consultant
AECOM
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“I initially worked with Colin after a promotion to an executive role in our Company. After meeting with several providers, it was clear that Colin possessed the knowledge and experience to expand my leadership and business abilities. With regular meetings over a 12-month period, we focused on leadership insights (including emotional intelligence) and organizational dynamics, which proved to be instrumental, both for a successful transition into my new role, as well as in the performance of the business.
“A little further down the road, and in the face of challenging business conditions, I retained Colin and his team to assist in a high-performance team development initiative with my senior leadership group and sales leaders, in which a customized curriculum was created based on specific business deliverables.
“Colin’s ability to expand comfort zones and challenge innate tendencies, while driving actionable outcomes allowed us to successfully build a framework to advance the business, and provided a solid leadership foundation for both me and my team, which continues to serve us well today.”
Tom Macerollo
Former Vice-President/General Manager
Legrand – Canada
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“I reached out to Colin and his group after being referred by a close personal friend. In speaking with her over the years she understood my pain points of being an entrepreneur and a leader and feeling ‘stuck’ with leading a fast growing company. I started working with Colin on a monthly basis and quickly discovered that I was missing some important leadership fundamentals and it was hindering my abilities to effectively lead people. Each session that we were together I was discovering important building blocks that I needed to enhance my weaknesses. Being able to assess whether I am ‘leading or managing’ on a daily basis has helped me to lead and to grow my business effectively. Colin’s coaching was so effective that I felt that our managers would benefit significantly and become better leaders as well.
“Colin has been leading our team-building workshops over the last few years and it has proven to be a very worthwhile investment. The results are very clear; we are now seeing positive results from managers being able to lead more effectively and confidently.”
Winston Stewart
President/CEO
Wincon Security
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“I was extremely fortunate to work with Colin Holbrow, to support my development to apply for a Senior Executive position. Our Board Chair had worked with Colin for several years and highly recommended him to me. The work focused on building my confidence and personal brand, defining my principles and decision-making lenses so that I would grow in consistent decision-making and help a team understand why and how decisions were made. However, in the time spent with Colin, I learned more about myself than I could have realized.
“Meeting monthly, with take-away practical activities, led me to develop a sense of calmness and clarity in how I approached my role. I learned that the intuitiveness that is a large part of me was a strength and best platform to work from when combined with increased skills and knowledge. I learned that if I strayed from that, I was no longer authentic or at my best. Over time, in the almost 9 years Colin and I worked together, we have also integrated coaching in various teams I have overseen. They started to learn about how they presented themselves, about the strengths they each have and how leaning into each other’s strengths supported them to become a trusting and empowered team.
“As I reflect on how this still guides me, I believe that as a new business owner, it has underpinned my ability to work with clients, develop business opportunities and build lasting respectful relationships that builds success into my business.”
Jeanette Heywood
Principal
The Other Half Consultants Inc.
Former VP Philanthropy YMCA Simcoe/Muskoka
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“I worked with Colin in 2010/2011 when my Director hired him to provide executive leadership coaching for the Infrastructure and Environmental Services leadership team at the Town of Aurora. The coaching consisted in group sessions and one-on-one sessions. I enjoyed a lot the one-on-one sessions; they were thought provoking and added meaningful direction, purpose and clarity to my actions as a new leader. I feel very fortunate to be given the opportunity to work with Colin very early on in my professional leadership journey.
“I learned a lot about myself and about my abilities and potential as a leader. The coaching lessons with Colin were very valuable lessons that continue to serve me every day of my professional career.”
Anca Mihail
Manager of Engineering and Capital Delivery
Town of Aurora
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“My career was stuck and although my hard work and successes were recognized with pay increases and added responsibilities, I couldn’t get to that next level. In fact, feedback from my interviews was getting worse! I picked Colin as my coach because right from the beginning, he listened. Sounds simple, but it is difficult to listen and not allow any bias into the interaction.
“The coaching process was over a period of 18 months and was part of a leadership development program. It did not take too long to determine through tests that I had blinders on with respect to my Emotional Intelligence. Over time, disappointments eroded my confidence and although my results continued to be extremely strong, I was losing the ability to connect, my Emotional Intelligence tanked– and I did not realize it. It took some time for me to allow myself to show up again, but it did happen, and Colin coached me through the rebuilding of my brand and my message.
“With Colin’s coaching I was able to re-focus and prioritize. The promotion I had been looking for happened organically and over the past 4-5 years I have challenged myself to become a role model for employees who feel marginalized or other. I am still an introvert, but comfortable with myself and am rewarded by those I can support in their leadership growth and development.”
Margo Waicheri
Vice President, Global Risk
Scotiabank
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“As part of our organization’s support for leaders I was introduced to Colin who was part of our coaching faculty. We immediately connected, with Colin using a challenging respectful style to help me identify and assess issues I was encountering, often for the first time, in my new leadership role. Colin also had a wealth of tools he shared to help me think about both myself and those around me in different ways, helping me to improve my effectiveness as a leader.
“Having Colin as a coach was invaluable – he was a strong contributor to my success.”
Kristian Knibutat
Chief Operating Officer/Chief Risk Officer
PwC Canada
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“I chose to work with Colin to help me accelerate my capacity for leadership. I was preparing to advance my career and was putting my name forward to be selected as CEO of NorWest Community Health Centres in Thunder Bay, Ontario. Over the years I had invested a lot of time and energy advancing the needs of the organization, with minimal time and attention paid to who I was and wanted to be as a leader.
“Colin demonstrated authentic interest and was genuine in his approach. In a few short months Colin helped me identify my strengths, passion, talent, values and vision. Through our work, I was able to showcase my abilities and was successful in becoming the organization’s CEO. While preparation for career advancement was important, Colin reminded me to not lose sight of important aspects of my life that are important and valuable; family, health and being true to myself.
“I continued to work with Colin during my transition into the CEO role. He has helped me work through this transition while also attending to the new challenges of working within a health care system that continues to be transformed in our part of the world. I am proud of my accomplishments and thankful that Colin coached me to excel and exemplify leadership in everything that I do. I highly recommend engaging with Colin in your journey.
Juanita Lawson
CEO
NorWest Community Health Centres
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Here’s a testimonial from a participant in a course recently facilitated by Colin at the Canadian Management Centre.
“I found Colin to be one of the best instructors I have encountered in my 32-year career. He was engaging, honest and literally full of excellent information and references. He gave us many, many examples of how to behave with “emotional intelligence’ in his basic dealings with the team. I believe I’ve gotten more from this course, and any other; that is directly atributable to Colin. Thank you for using his services.?
Andrea Cruise
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Contact Us Today
Are we the right fit for helping you map out and maintain your path to a thriving career and rewarding personal life? Finding out is simple. Call The Holbrow Group at 905-301-2264 to schedule an exploratory phone conversation so you can determine if we’re aligned with your objectives.